The Barcelona Mistakes I’ve Watched People Make for Twenty Years

I’ve been watching visitors make the same mistakes in this city since I was a teenager. Most of them are harmless. A few are expensive. Here, in no particular order, are the ones that happen most often.

Eating on the Rambla. The restaurants on Las Ramblas operate on a single business model: high prices, mediocre food, maximum tourist throughput. No local has eaten there voluntarily in living memory. Walk one block in either direction — Raval side or Born side — and the food improves and the prices drop. The paella in those seafront restaurants near Barceloneta? Also a trap. Authentic paella is a Valencian dish made inland. The seafood rice you want is arros a banda, and you won’t find the good version in tourist restaurants.

Queueing for things that don’t deserve it. The Boqueria queue is for tourists who haven’t found the neighbourhood markets yet. The queue for the elevator up the Sagrada Família towers can be avoided by booking online in advance. The queue at tourist-facing shops near the Gothic Quarter is mostly theatre. Meanwhile, the things worth queuing for — a Sunday morning slot at Quimet & Quimet, a Nitsa Club night at Sala Apolo when a good DJ is on — have no marketing budget and you find out about them from someone who lives here.

Mistaking the Gothic Quarter for old Barcelona. The Barri Gòtic is real in parts — there are genuine Roman ruins, the cathedral is the cathedral — but significant portions of the streetscape were rebuilt in the early 20th century as a romantic reconstruction of what medieval Barcelona might have looked like. It’s a curated experience. The actual working-class historic city is better found in El Raval, the Barceloneta, and the parts of the Born that haven’t been renovated into boutique hotels.